Apple Still Using SSDs With Varying Speeds on New MacBook Air

[centauratlas]

After doing some reading, I think the issue is SATA II vs SATA III for the Toshiba vs the Samsung.

Either will be faster than a HDD, but obviously going for the faster version is better. ;-)

I wonder if the Samsung SSD is available on any of the current MacBook Pros.

If you look the "negotiated speed" in the demo was "3 Gigabit". I suspect that with the Samsung that would say something different given that the link speed is capable of "6 Gigabit"

 

[NebulaClash]

Will the store people open a sealed product to this test??

Probably depends on your particular store's personnel, but if they refuse, refuse to buy and walk out. That might make them change their mind if they know that if they show you it is running Samsung chips you will plunk your credit card down on the spot.

Or if you have bought it and find out you have the Toshiba SSD, send it back during the return period, and make sure Apple knows why it is being returned.

 

[C00rDiNaT0r]

And for all we know, the Samsung ones might die in 2 years while the Toshiba ones last 10.

That's why we have AppleCare. Sometimes if your mac breaks right after the 3-yr mark, a nice Apple Genius would still fix it. YMMV, obviously.

 

[SeattleMoose]

My Rap Song...

So for the same price
And a roll of the dice
You buy a Mac
Which ain't as nice

You walk out
And you read the news
You take it back
But they refuse

I think I'll keep my day job.....

 

[Hellhammer]

And for all we know, the Samsung ones might die in 2 years while the Toshiba ones last 10.

Or it could be the opposite. Both are reliable brands so your post doesn't really have any merit unless you have proofs to back up your statement than Toshiba is more reliable.

 

[KnightWRX]

Probably depends on your particular store's personnel, but if they refuse, refuse to buy and walk out. That might make them change their mind if they know that if they show you it is running Samsung chips you will plunk your credit card down on the spot.

Or if you have bought it and find out you have the Toshiba SSD, send it back during the return period, and make sure Apple knows why it is being returned.

I doubt stores would lose that much money over a fussy buyer. They'd just let you walk out and sell the sealed new Air to someone else who doesn't care, instead of taking a big loss on then having to sell the product as open box.

The Apple store did this to me with the 24" LED ACD. I asked them open it in the store to check for defects after 2 had problems. On the 2nd one they brought out, they said "if we open it, you bought it". They let me walk out instead. I do quite understand them. Taking a hit on multiple products is not good for business.

 

[Hellhammer]

I doubt stores would lose that much money over a fussy buyer. They'd just let you walk out and sell the sealed new Air to someone else who doesn't care, instead of taking a big loss on then having to sell the product as open box.

The Apple store did this to me with the 24" LED ACD. I asked them open it in the store to check for defects after 2 had problems. On the 2nd one they brought out, they said "if we open it, you bought it". They let me walk out instead. I do quite understand them. Taking a hit on multiple products is not good for business.

There is no restocking fee anymore so it could have changed. Basically, you could buy it and then open it up in the store and immediate return it. The end result would be the same, but it might just cause more paper work for Apple (especially if you choose to return it instead of exchanging).

At least with the iMacs, it has been fairly common that people want to see them in stores before buying due to the yellow tint issue. Usually they have been allowed to do that.

 

[Jerome Morrow]

For a component that has a huge impact on performance, this is quite the dick move on Apple's part.

If it was wifi or bluetoth wouldn't be that much big of a deal, but here it is.

 

[KidRacer]

well, looks like i am one of the unlucky ones who received a toshiba drive in their 13" air. awesome. even if i return it, is there a way to guarantee that the next box they hand me has a samsung drive in it?

lame.

 

[kain125]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Is there an easy way to tell what kind of SSD one has other than testing the performance?

 

[hayesk]

well, looks like i am one of the unlucky ones who received a toshiba drive in their 13" air. awesome. even if i return it, is there a way to guarantee that the next box they hand me has a samsung drive in it?

lame.

Since there is no advertised SSD speed on Apple's web site (or on the box it comes in) what is the lame part?

The question is, would you notice or care if you didn't read an article about it? If the answer is no, then there's nothing lame about it.

So a few people get faster drives. So what? It doesn't affect you.

 

[Tastydirt]

While this situation is not ideal, I very much doubt anyone would be able to notice the real world difference between the Toshiba and Samsung SSDs. That Blackmagic tool only tests large sequential transfers and not the smaller random ones that affect system responsiveness.

If people bothered to check, you'll find similar variances in the HDDs Apple have traditionally used.

 

[bigp9998]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Is there an easy way to tell what kind of SSD one has other than testing the performance?

Applications > Utilities > System Profiler > Serial ATA

TS=Toshiba
SM=Samsung

 

[phpmaven]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Is there an easy way to tell what kind of SSD one has other than testing the performance?

Try watching the video.

Since there is no advertised SSD speed on Apple's web site (or on the box it comes in) what is the lame part?

The question is, would you notice or care if you didn't read an article about it? If the answer is no, then there's nothing lame about it.

So a few people get faster drives. So what? It doesn't affect you.

Huh?

Your reasoning is a bit off. He obviously has read an article about it. Plus, if he gets a slower drive and others get a faster one and he knows about it, how is he NOT affected?

 

[Veinticinco]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Is there an easy way to tell what kind of SSD one has other than testing the performance?

/About This Mac/More Info/(opens System Profiler)/Hardware Serial-ATA

The 'Apple SSD' drive listed will be suffixed with either 'TS' or 'SM' denoting the manufacturer.

 

[KPOM]

For a component that has a huge impact on performance, this is quite the dick move on Apple's part.

How so? They aren't advertising the speed of the SSD on any of their promotional materials or website. They have been using both Samsung and Toshiba drives for months on the MacBook Air, and they didn't change this component on the new models. The only things that have changed are the processor, graphics processor, Thunderbolt, and backlit keyboard. Everything else is carried over from the 2010 model, including the two drives. It's similar to a car manufacturer putting two different brands tire on two of the same model car on the production line. It happens all the time. It isn't like they are advertising the Samsung speeds and putting the Toshiba drives on the production models. All they are saying is that you get a 128GB or 256GB SSD, which is true.

I had the Toshiba drive in my 2010 11" model, and the Samsung in my 2011 11" model. Aside from a benchmark, I really can't tell the difference on disk-intensive tasks. The new model feels quicker, for sure, but that's more because the processor is twice as fast.

Overall, don't sweat it. If you get the Toshiba drive, it's still plenty fast, particularly if you are coming from a hard drive-equipped notebook.

 

[AppleDroid]

While this situation is not ideal, I very much doubt anyone would be able to notice the real world difference between the Toshiba and Samsung SSDs. That Blackmagic tool only tests large sequential transfers and not the smaller random ones that affect system responsiveness.

If people bothered to check, you'll find similar variances in the HDDs Apple have traditionally used.

This. I usually get up-in-arms over these blunders but honestly 99% of the buying populace won't notice nor have a clue they are missing theoretical speed gains.

 

[Erwin-Br]

Since there is no advertised SSD speed on Apple's web site (or on the box it comes in) what is the lame part?

The question is, would you notice or care if you didn't read an article about it? If the answer is no, then there's nothing lame about it.

So a few people get faster drives. So what? It doesn't affect you.

Hehe, but the thing is, he *does* know. And knowing that other people bought the same machine for the same price, but with better equipment, can be a frustrating thought.

 

[solgae]

While this situation is not ideal, I very much doubt anyone would be able to notice the real world difference between the Toshiba and Samsung SSDs. That Blackmagic tool only tests large sequential transfers and not the smaller random ones that affect system responsiveness.

If people bothered to check, you'll find similar variances in the HDDs Apple have traditionally used.

What I wanted to say. Sequential disk speed is only one part of the performance, since a good RAID'ed regular HDD will destroy a single SSD in terms of sequential throughput. What SSDs excel over HDD (and RAID'ed HDD) is at Random I/O throughput, and that's where most of the OS tasks will fall in. Sequential will come into play only when you frequently copy/move large files in and out, or perform a lot of video conversions/editing (and any tasks that are sequential in nature). Most likely, you won't notice any difference between Samsung and Toshiba SSDs.

 

[Sackvillenb]

Well... although this is not really a big deal for most people... this is still annoying. If two people pay the same price for the same macbook... they should be getting the same spec on their hardware.

 

[KPOM]

After doing some reading, I think the issue is SATA II vs SATA III for the Toshiba vs the Samsung.

Either will be faster than a HDD, but obviously going for the faster version is better. ;-)

I wonder if the Samsung SSD is available on any of the current MacBook Pros.

If you look the "negotiated speed" in the demo was "3 Gigabit". I suspect that with the Samsung that would say something different given that the link speed is capable of "6 Gigabit"

No, I have the Samsung and it's SATA II. The logic board can accept a SATA III SSD, so I wouldn't doubt that later in the year Apple starts putting in a SATA III drive. Imagine the fallout then!

 

[KnightWRX]

There is no restocking fee anymore so it could have changed. Basically, you could buy it and then open it up in the store and immediate return it. The end result would be the same, but it might just cause more paper work for Apple (especially if you choose to return it instead of exchanging).

At least with the iMacs, it has been fairly common that people want to see them in stores before buying due to the yellow tint issue. Usually they have been allowed to do that.

Like I said, after 2 defectives 24" LED ACDs, I went this route. On the 4th, the Apple store manager was clear : It was this one or none at all, no matter the defects.

There's a point where a policy can be abused. They'll probably let you return 1 or 2, but at the 3rd, they'll just tell you "sale is final" before hand, waving the store policy away, which is legal in most jurisdictions. And it just makes sense.

 

[NicktheNorse]

They do the same thing with the LCD panels...

 

[LSUtigers03]

I installed a 60GB OWC Extreme Pro 3G last night. I just ran the speed test and my write was 240 MB/s and my read was 265 MB/s. Would I notice a big real world difference between the ssd I have now and the slower Air ssd? The 6G ssd drives are much faster in specs but most people have said they don't really notice real world differences.

 

[Veinticinco]

Reminds me a little of the furore re. the MBA rev.B displays, and the crapshoot that was...

[getting a 9C90 (always plagued with 'lines') or a 9C9A (potentially ok but no guarantee) or the occasional 9C8F used in the first-gen MBA which was problem-free...]

Might be an idea to start to log a sample (poll) with the aim to maybe ID if there's any patterns between specs and POS location?